Sky War
by Warrior Phoenix
Summary: High above the sky, within the stars, lies the once peaceful land of Equlia. On this land, live two forces, the dreams and the nightmares. The two have left each other alone for centries, but then, soemthing happens and anything can be killed in a second, hearts can break and never heal, the air smells of rotting flesh. A war bewtween the dreams and the nightmares has erupted.


Chapter 1

**The Mistress**

"LUCY CELESTINA HEARTFILIA!" a voice screeched with anger.

The celestial mage nervously turned around, and discovered that it was none other than the head mistress of the Dream Kingdom, Claudia; or as they said in Equlia, CloudStar.

Lucy nervously gulped. "Yes ma'm?" She asked, barely audible.

"I SENT YOU TO RETRIEVE NATSU AND GRAY!" CloudStar bellowed, purple veins bulging from her porcelain skin.

"B-but, M-mistress L-LilacStar t-told m-me t-to h-help J-juvia w-with s-something," Lucy stuttered under the mistress's furious glare. "S-so, I t-thought t-that I w-would d-do t-that f-first."

"ARE YOU BLAMING THIS ON LILACSTAR?" CloudStar screeched again; Lucy covered her ears.

"N-no." The blonde replied, uncovering her ears.

"Then go retrieve Natsu and Gray." CloudStar ordered, her voice raspy from all the shouting she had done. "And make it quick or I'll kill all three of you."

Lucy bowed, and then scurried away towards the main hall of the dream palace. She didn't stop until she reached the door that opened into the courtyard. She pushed open the large polished wood doors with a loud _creak_, and let them slam behind her. She glanced around. Other than a few other maids like herself, and three warriors, the courtyard was deserted.

She pushed a small button that resembled the wall somewhat now that it had rusted, and a small cabinet-like thing popped out. Inside, was a key made of silver, which she used to open the gate enclosing the palace. On the other side, she pushed a similar button, and dropped the key inside before entering the small town of Teruko.

Lucy sighed in content. When she had been younger, she had always enjoyed playing with the children who lived in Teruko. Despite its small size, Teroku was one of her favorite places. The people were kind and interesting, and some of them had versatile abilities. The food here was good too. Everything from apple turnovers to a single bottle of red wine was homemade. Lucy sighed again, but this time with disappointment. Ever since the war between the dreams and the nightmares began, many people from Teroku left to fight, leaving only a few people who were to lazy to keep the town clean. Now, Teroku seemed like the most squalid place in Equlia, despite it's name, which meant _sunshine girl_. Litter was strewn across the streets, dim light blubs flickered on and off in street lamps; their pain chipping. Rotting food lay open in containers outside houses, dead animals dotted the ground.

Lucy grimaced when she unconsciously took in a deep breath. The air lingered with the revolting stench of rotting food and something that had died, or was dying. She clampsed her hand over her nose, and tried breathing through her mouth, not that it helped too much; Lucy felt as if she had just swallowed some road kill. She glanced to her right, and much to her horror, she found the dead body of a raccoon lying on the sidewalk. A cluster of squirmy white maggots were feasting on it's rotting pink, green flesh, as flies hovered over a dry pool of crimson blood that had been leaked out fro a deep wound in the animal's back leg. Next to the corpse, was a shriveled up, foul smelling clump, leaking more blood and a rancid, yellow liquid. She realized in disgust that it was the raccoon's stomach that had been torn out by some sort of vicious animal.

"Fuck you, CloudStar." Lucy grumbled to herself. "Making me come out here."

Slowly, she proceeded forwards. The vomit-enducing odor soon disappeared, and gave away to the sweet scent of fresh grass and wildflowers. The battle field was only about two miles away and Teroku was behind her about half a mile, so it was surprise that the meadow smelled so fresh and clean, especially since the wind was unbelievably strong and quick here.

Up ahead, the celestial mage noticed a faint sapphire glow, getting brighter and brighter as it became bigger. A wave of relief washed over he when she realized it was what she was looking for, or in her case, who she was looking for. It was Natsu and Gray walking towards her.

"Natsu! Gray!" she shouted, waving her arm to get their attention.

The two abruptly halted, drew their swords, and got into a battle stance, ready for a nightmare warrior to attack. But when they realized it was Lucy, they sheathed the weapon and sprinted towards her.

"What are doing here?" Natsu asked when the two arrived. "You're a nurse."

"Mistress CloudStar sent me to retrieve you too." Lucy replied half heartedly. "Better hurry or she'll kill all three of us!"

"Really now?" Gray asked, thinking that she was in the mood for comedy.

"No, I'm serious." Lucy said. "CloudStar said she would kill us if we didn't make it back in time."

"Oh, shit." the ice mage mumbled.

* * *

"Wow, looks like little miss needs-a-watch made it on time today." A nurse named Daline, otherwise known as DawnSky, cooed, as Lucy walked into the courtyard with Natsu and Gray. "Did you happen to buy a watch at Teroku today? I bet they gave you a discount for 50% off. Their watches are broken and filthy after all."

"Shut up!" Lucy hissed.

"Oh, so they didn't give you a 50% off." DawnSky flashed her a bitter, teasing smile. "Was it only 40%? Poor you."

"I said, shut up." Lucy growled through gritted teeth.

"Only 30%? That's too b-" Lucy punched the nurse in the face. "Shut the hell up!"

DawnSky jumped out of the blonde's reach. "You know you'll get punished by Mistress CloudStar if you hurt me!" she shouted. Sudden realization drained the color from Lucy's face as she stopped, mid-punch. "Oh, crap."

"If you leave me alone, I won't tell CloudStar, deal?" DawnSky asked, a small glint of trickery gleamed in her black eyes.

Unfortunenately, Lucy didn't notice it, and grumbled a silent, "deal".

DawnSky sighed, and rubbed the spot where the celestial mage had punched her; a bruise was starting to form. "I guess I'll have to make up something for this now."

"Just say you weren't watching where you were going and hit the wall." Lucy said, looking away from the nurse.

DawnSky just shrugged. "Whatever." and walked towards the main palace doors.

As the nurse walked away, Natsu asked, "Why do people always call you little miss needs-a-watch?"

Gray smacked the back of his pink head. "Idiot! You know she hates explaining it to people! Besides, she already told you!"

"She did?" Natsu said giving the celestial mage a bewildered look.

"Yeah." Lucy said, averting her gaze to the stone ground of the courtyard. "Well, I better go see if CloudStar needs anything, bye." she added, before turning her back to them and walking away without another glance.

* * *

"Aren't you hungry, Lisanna?" Levy asked, glancing at her bowl of untouched salad.

"I'm too tired to eat." the white haired mage groaned, resting her head on her folded arms. "And my back hurts."

"Who was in charge of you today?" Levy questioned, eating her own salad. "Was it CloudStar?"

"No," Lisanna shook her head as she poked her fork at a cucumber. "It was Mistress WindStar."

Levy furrowed her eyebrows. "But, WindStar is usually nice."

"I know," Lisanna said. "But today, she was really impatient."

"Strange, that's not like her."

"Yeah, I think she's ticked off about something."

"About what?"

"I don't know." Lisanna sighed. "Maybe Daichi got wounded during battle."

"And she's worried sick about him?" Levy finished.

"Probably, she's always been worried about Daichi ever since he was went to fight in the war."

Levy nodded, and glanced over at the table directly across from theirs. Lucy was sitting there, all alone, her face resting on her hands with a pondering expression. She looked sad in her opinion.

_"Was DawnSky being mean to her again?" _Levy wondered.

The bookworm sighed. Because the celestial mage usually was late for her jobs, and the fact that she had befriended the ex-nightmare warrior Erza, most people made fun of her. But there was something strange about that too. Natsu, Gray, Mirajane, and many others, herself included, had also befriended Erza, and nobody did anything to put them down. Was there another reason why they liked to tease Lucy?

"Hey Levy." Lisanna said, waving her hand in her face. "Levy?"

"Oh sorry, what did you say?"

"I'm gonna go back too my room now, I'll meet you in the fountain room in an hour, WindStar wanted us to check the lilies for any spots." the take-over mage replied.

"Okay."

After Lisanna left, the blunette glanced over at Lucy's table again. She was still in the same position, with the same expression on her face. A bunch of reasons why people would be mean to someone as kind as Lucy, flooded her mind. "_Maybe she did something horribly bad when I was sick that day. Or maybe because she's only a 3rd rank nurse." _Levy sighed, and decided to stop worrying. If something was bothering the blonde, she would tell her, herself.

* * *

"Here's some gauze, Mira." Lucy said blankly, handing her a roll of cloth.

"Thanks Lucy." Mirajane smiled at the celestial mage.

"You're welcome." Lucy said with the same blank tone.

The white haired woman placed the gauze on the shelf along with all the other medical supplies. "Is something wrong Lucy? You seem sad."

"Not really." the celestial mage mumbled in reply.

"Are you sure?" Mirajane asked, putting more gauze onto the shelf. "You know you can tell me anything."

Lucy smiled a little. "I know. Thanks Mira."

Glad that she had cheered her friend up, Mirajane began to hum _Tabidatsu No Mono He_. Lucy's pace began to follow the tempo of the beautiful tune, as she walked out of the room, also humming the song.

_With you gone I brush the desk._

_As the shadow drops I am alone again today._

_Looking up to the sky I pray,_

_knowing you're under the same sky._

_At times when you're shaking with tears,_

_and times when you seem to be engulfed by darkness,_

_don't forget, you always have, you always have a place to return to._

_And people are waiting for you._

"STOP YOUR ANNOYING HUMMING!" The head mistress's voice rang out, interrupting the peacefulness the blonde had felt just a few moments ago.

Lucy bowed. "I am sorry, Head Mistress CloudStar. Is there anything I can do?"

"Hmph." CloudStar snorted. "You can at least make yourself useful. Go help Selina, excuse me, StarBreeze, water the plants in the west garden."

After she finished talking, the blue haired woman stomped away towards Juvia and another maid and began to bark orders at them. Lucy sweatdropped slightly, and began walking towards the hallway that would lead her to the west garden. She had just entered the room, and I was about to say hi to StarBreeze, when a thunderous rumbling noise echoed across the room, and the roof began to collapse.

* * *

Corinne, known as Curse in Equlia, stared solemnly at the polished black would floor of one of the many living rooms of the nightmare palace. Her ghostly pale white hair hung over her face, just enough that you could see that her purple eyes were dull and toned with shades of black.

"Are you okay, Curse?" the nightmare warrior's best friend, Olivia, known as Onyx in Equlia, asked.

"No." Curse replied silently.

"Why?"

"Mistress Vienna dropped me from the Nightmare Armada." she said, still not facing her friend.

Onyx's eyes widened. "WHAT?!" she shrieked. "Are you serious?"

Curse finally looked at Onyx. "Yes. She _really _did drop me from the Nightmare Armada."

"But, why?"

"I don't know, she didn't tell me. Or rather, she wouldn't tell me."

"But, why?"

"I already said she wouldn't tell me." Curse hissed. Then more gently, she added. "I'm sorry, I just want to be alone right now."

"Okay, I'll just leave you alone until you feel better, 'kay?"

"Sure, whatever." Curse answered, before disappearing into the shadows of the hallway that led the way to her room.

Onyx stood still, until her friend's figure was completely out of sight. Her mind was still shocked that Curse had been kicked off the Nightmare Armada. She was a good fighter, better than most of the other warriors. She was cunning, and clever too. And not too mention fast, it took her three battle before she was hit by any of the dreamers arrows and magical spells.

_"Why did Mistress Vienna kick her off?"_

* * *

Curse locked her door behind her without saying a word. The air was quiet, all she could hear was the sound of her breathing. She sat down on a nearby stool, and stared at the wall.

"Damn you, Vienna." she growled, trying to resist the urge to punch the wall, which her mind made it look like the mistress. "You...you..." She clenched her first. "You...fucking...bitch."

And with that, she lashed out at her wall. A few moments later, which felt like hours to Curse, she realized there was a large hole in her wall. _"Crap, I let my emotions get in my way again."_ But it wasn't like she couldn't help it. Being dropped from the Nightmare Armada had crushed her dream of becoming the mariner prime, and she would be separated from Onyx. Besides, Vienna wasn't even the head mistress, BlackStar was. _"And she is **way** nicer than that damn woman."_

Curse unlocked the door, and walked back outside. She walked back to where she last saw Onyx, and was disappointed to discover that she had left. With a sigh, she walked outside, and onto the large stone bridge that encircled the nightmare palace. The bridge wasn't as crowded as it had been a few hours ago, when the dream armada had attacked, and people were rushing the wounded to the infirmary. Up ahead, she could see the dream kidngom's palace, made out of crystal and marble, sparkling on a shimmering cloud of mist. The image reminded her that she used to think it was stupid that the dreamers had built that way, enemies could spot it ten miles away, while the nightmare palace was less visible because thick black cloud shrouded the already black walls of the castle. But she later learned that what the dream people had done was actually very smart. The sparkling light from the crystals blinded people who weren't dreams, and the shimmering mist was made people's senses fuzzy, which slowed them down, allowing them to attack whoever infiltrate their palace.

"Curse," a voice said from behind her. "I must speak with you."

Curse turned around, and saw BlackStar; she was wearing a black silk shawl over her dress, with her blue hair falling loosely over it.

"Yes, mistress?"

"I heard that Mistress Vienna kicked you off the Nightmare Armada." BlackStar said, her voice slurring Vienna's name. "Is it true?"

She sighed. "Yes, it's true."

"If I had known sooner, I would've argued for you." BlackStar said. "But it looks like the queen agreed with her in private."

"But, you are the head mistress, why didn't they tell you?" Curse asked, puzzled that the mistress didn't know and puzzled that BlackStar was showing empathy to _her_.

"That, I do not know." BlackStar answered. "If you do find out, please inform me immediately."

"Of course, BlackStar."

* * *

"My queen," Vienna bowed, so low, her curly hair golden, orange touched the ground. "Curse has officially been kicked off the Nightmare Armada."

"Excellent." Hissed a voice from behind the curtains draped over the platform where the throne sat. "Who's next on the list?"

Vienna flipped through a few yellowed papers, each and every one of them contained five names, all perfectly written in cursive, in raven blood. "Ah, it is BlackMoon

"Not a surprise." the queen said. Vienna could feel her bitterly smiling, even though she was hidden. "Mikazuki has been failing since the day she was born."

Vienna smirked in amusement. "I heard she learned to crawl when she was three."

"That just shows how pathetic she is." the queen said. "I'm surprised she even made it into the armada in the first place."

"I agree." Vienna said, tossing some of her haid behind her back. "Would you like to hear the next one, your greatness?"

"One more should do." she said, the mistress could see that the queen had switched spots. The curtain seemed to bemoving by itself. "I want to be suprised next time. Who knows? It might be one that I've always predicted would fail."

"Ooh, you'll like this one." Vieanna smiled. "If this one resists, they'll be persecuted. "It is Tenshi, "Heaven's child"."

"Delightful, absolutely delightful." the queen hissed with glee. "I've always wanted to see the child of Heaven's head roll on the ground, trailing with blood, and then devoured by griffons!"

"One thing puzzles me though, your majesty." Vienna bowed slightly. "If his name means, _Heaven's child; like an angel_, how did he join the nightmare armda, which is nothing like Heaven?

"That puzzles me too." the queen said. "But, no matter. As long as he's currently in the armada, then we can chop off his head and feed him to my griffon." the queen sighed in content. "I can taste the blood already!"

"I do not wish to intiminate your griffon, but what is his name again?" Vienna asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

There was a tension filled pause. Pearls of sweat beaded up on Vienna's skin, and rolled off her back as she waited for the queen's answer. When warriors forgot the name of her griffon, she would punish them by stripping off all their clothes and stab daggers into their chest, or she would tie them off and throw them into a pit of lava, or she would make it quick and chop of their heads. Sometimes she even did it in front of their families. But the griffon's name was partially hard to remember. All the mistress could remember that is started with a 'd', she even forgot what it's name even meant.

"Don't worry, I only punish the warriors who forget his name." the queen said; Vienna let out a sigh of relief. "His name is Desdemona." The queen cleared her throat and added. "It means, of the devil."

* * *

Onyx placed her bookmark between the binding of her book, and closed it as she reached for her cup of green tea. It's herbal essence relaxed her tense nerves, as she slowly sipped the hot, steamy liquid. She put the cup down, and began to read again. Normally at this time, she would be practicing her combat skills with Curse or BlackMoon. But today, the mariner prime _finally _let her troop take a break today because so many people were recruiting to be a nightmare warrior. The poor general was up to his elbows in work!

Mariner Prime Hoshi, known as ThornHeart in Equlia, was a strict and straight forward man. He would make a warrior train from dawn to dusk if that was what would make them better at combat skills or anything related to battling. This included cleverness, magic, accuracy, and speed. If you thought you were talented at those five things, ThornHeart would easily prove you wrong. His skills made the highest ranks warriors look clumsy and weak, but that was the whole reason he was the Nightmare's mariner prime.

She had worked hard to come this far. Ever since she was the right age to start training to be a recruit, she practiced everyday from 7 AM to 9 PM. Onyx had never missed a day of her training, for she had never gotten ill since then. The memories of her first day flooded her mind, she had almost made it to the advanced rank on her first day! But after some more training, she became one of their best warriors. Nobody could beat her, except for ThornHeart of course, but there was only one other person who could beat her, BloodRose. The woman was crazy powerful with her magical powers, and she had excellent swordsmanship. When she was in this one armor, she was lightning quick and practically no one could catch her. Surprisingly, the two weren't rivals, but good friends. But then one day, BloodRose disappeared, and Onyx couldn't find her. In fact, she was still missing, but Onyx had long given up on finding her.

Sometimes she wondered why people wanted to be a nightmare warrior. She had decided to become one because it was her dream, and she wanted to take revenge on the dreams. One of them had murdered her parents, and ever since the day of their murder, she had wanted to avenge them by beheading the dream's mariner prime, or one of their mistresses, or even better, their _head _mistress. But there was only one prize better than all the other's combined, their beloved queen...

Murdering their prime leader would weaken the dreams, after all, most of the battle tactics the mariner prime created were with the help of the queen, who knew every inch of the geography of the dream kingdom. The citizens would mourn, and the blame the warriors for not protecting her. They would fight back, and with the nightmares right on their tail, the warriors would have to much to handle. They would either all be wiped out, or surrender to th nightmares and spend the rest of their lives haunting little children instead of protecting them.

Onyx licked her lips at the thought of all the blood that would be spilled if they tried to resist. She could just picture all of those dream warriors, in dirty prison cages creating nightmares for those children they had once protected. But she couldn't do it alone, she wanted to savor this moment with Curse and BlackMoon and BloodRose, wherever she was. A sneaking suspicion told her that BloodRose had been somehow captured by the dreams and was being held hostage. Her blood boiled with adrenaline and anger, if she was right, she would break her friend out, and along with Curse, BlackMoon, and herself, they would rule Equlia, and dominate the human world.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

* * *

_Hey minna-san! This is Warrior Phoenix with the new and improved first chapter of Sky War! I decided to make more descriptive and longer, because I had hardly any followers, and reviews. But this wasn't just for me, I wanted all of you out there to enjoy a nice **long** story._

_You may have noticed some of these names; Mikazuki, Tenshi, Daichi, Celestina, Desdemona, and Hoshi. All of these names mean something. _

_Mikazuki means new moon, in Japanese. Tenshi means Heaven's child; like an angel in Japanese. Daichi means, earth in Japanese. Celestina means, of the heavens in Latin. Desdemona, means of the devil in Latin . And Hoshi means star in Japanese._

_You also may have noticed when Vienna was talking about Tenshi, the queen was saying how much she would enjoy seeing "Heaven's child's" head rolling across the floor, trailing with blood, and devoured by griffons. If you are Catholic, please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not trying to support you-know-who. In fact, I believe in God, and go to a Catholic Camp which had church every morning and night, and we has mass on the third day._

_Also, the song Mirajane was humming, Tabidatsu No Mano He, or in English, Song of the Road, is is the song that Mirajane was singing to Team Natsu after their return from the Tower of Heaven in episode 41._

_Any ways, I hope you have enjoyed my story so far. I worked for five hours trying to rewrite this story. Don't worry, I took small breaks in between. Now, it's time for some bloopers!_

* * *

**BLOOPERS**

* * *

**Blooper 1**

**DawnSky: **Wow, looks like little miss needs-a-watch made it on time today. Did you happen to buy a watch at Teroku today? I bet they gave you a discount for 50% off. Their watches are broken and filthy after all.

**Lucy: **Shut up!

**DawnSky: **Oh, so they didn't give you 50% off. Was it 40% off? Poor you.

**Lucy: **I said, shut u-

**Natsu: ***cuts Lucy off* There's 50% off watches? Where? I really need one, well that's what Makarov says. I'm always late for guild meetings.

**Gray: **Where's the store? I need one too! Juvia never forgets to stalk me at 4 PM, and I never know what time it is, so I don't know when to hide.

**Lucy: **Eh? That's not in your lines.

**Phoenix: **CUT! BAKAS! WERE FILMIN' HERE!

**Blooper 2**

**Queen: **That just shows how pathetic she is. I'm surprised she even made it into the armada in the first place.

**Vienna: **I agree. *tosses hair behind back* Would you like the hear one, your greatness?

**Queen:** One more should do. I want to be supr-AHHHH! *falls off platform*

**Vienna: **Oh my gosh! Are you okay?

**Queen: **Yeah...

**Phoenix: **CUT!

**Blooper 3:**

**Levy: **Aren't you hungry, Lisanna?

**Lisanna: **I'm too tired to eat. And my back hurts.

**Levy: **Who was in charge of you today? *takes a bite out of salad* Was it CloudStar?

**Lisanna: **No, it was Miss-LEVY! YOU'RE EATING CHILI PEPPERS!

**Levy: **ITH BURNTHS! ITH BUNRTHS!

**Natsu: **Darn it! I was going to get the ice freak with that.

**Gajeel: **What did you do to Levy? *punches Natsu in the face*

**Natsu: ***punches Gajeel in the face*

*the two proceed to have a fight*

**Phoenix:** CUT!

* * *

_November 8th, 2013 8:39 PM_

* * *

**Warrior Phoenix – (^.^)**


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